How do you make warm soft analog sounds on Digitone?

Hi there :slight_smile:

im pretty sure this topic has been on the forum many times, but I’m getting a bit frustrated with these metallic fm sounds, I know FM is somehow difficult and I bought a lot of sound banks to help me out with my music. Is there any smart way to go with the adjustments in these 4 “osc” or what ever they are called to get a more warmer and soft sound? no matter what sound bank I buy they all got this metallic sound is it just how it is with FM?
Anyway I love digitone but I just would like it was a bit easier to make some warm not metallic sounds.

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As far as soundpacks go, you might want to check out the Haunted Hearts pack. Lots of warm soft stuff in there. Find sounds you like, reverse engineer them, fiddle with them.

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I think the pure digital sine waves sound quite nice and warm :slight_smile:

In all seriousness, in my experience the “warmness” from analog synths comes from the VCA and the filter. A bit of overdrive and filter on a noisy signal should get you there.

Try increasing feedback and detune a bit on some of the algo’s and mess around with the LP4 filter all the way down near the bottom and some slower settings on the envelopes. To my ears that usually does to trick and gets it close to that place.

At the end of the day though, it’s a digital FM synth; it’s probably not going to sound exactly like a Prophet.

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Also recommend haunted hearts pack

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Keep the levels of your modulators (on the SYN2 page, if I remember rightly) fairly low, use an LFO to warble the pitches slightly like it’s going in and out of tune (or use the ratio offsets in tiny amounts to create some phasing), then filter out the top end of your sounds until they sit just right in your mix

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Warming up an fm sound would warrant perusing the filter page and adding fx in my experience. I might also add a slow attack as well.

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Slower attack, minimum use of SYN2 Level A and B (Just to add nuances at top to your sound). I’m using Algorithm 7, 3 and 4 a lot to build warmer sounds. Like my new “EVO” Patch for Digitone / Keys. Just as an example and maybe to build something new out of it :slightly_smiling_face:

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Implement feedback algorithms subtley

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Haunted Hearts :+1:

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Haunted Hearts but also take a look at the Red Means Recording Pack. It has some very warm sounding patches that you can study to build your own.

Oh, and Reverb. Plenty of Reverb.

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If you want something like this bassline that comes in around 26 seconds, then I mess with SYN2 and it starts to sound quite “warm” as the filter closes around 1:40-ish. A good start is the 2nd Algo as you have control over X/Y and the SYN2 Page really shines. Harmonics for waveshape.

If this is what you are looking for there is a great video on how to do it:

This sounds way more moog-ish but it’s a good clue as to how to get there :slight_smile:

EDIT:

Sometimes the FX go a lil HAM and it sounds like a train adjusting on rails… happy little accident :upside_down_face:

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Nice vid, that patch is heavy! Just cooked it up and it doesn’t disappoint. Thanks.

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Yea Miles really did a good job with the moog patch tutorial. Then it’s just adjusting to taste and BAM new soundscapes!

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Hi, first time poster and long time lurker here. Great topic!

For recreating “analogue” sounding sounds I was mostly trying to emulate the behaviour of classic analogue (poly) synth on the digitone, which is perfectly possibe in my opinion. But it is a bit of a lengthy process to explain.

  1. The first step is to recreate classic waveforms in the oscillator section (e.g. saw and square). For classic poly synth sounds I experimented with algorithm 2 (two independent towers of carrier and modulator) to create a simple dual oscillator setup.

Step a.) Getting the waveforms right is the most important step. But do not worry If they do not look right on an oscilloscope, use your ears. For a sawtooth like sound I use a 1:1 ratio between carrier and modulator in one of the towers and increase the modulation index (LEVEL on the first SYN2 page) until I like what I hear. For a pulse-like sound I use a ratio of 1:2 and increase the modulation index until I like what I hear. The levels of the osciallators can be mixed freely on the first SYN1 page, for instance with an LFO. Nice! If I want to detune the two oscillator stacks, I simply use the first and second SYN1 pages. For instance, if I want to make the first tower a squarish sub oscillator playing one octave below, I simply change C to 0.5 and A to 1 on the first SYN1 page. If I want other intervals between the two oscillator stacks, I use the second SYN1 page (detuning C and A by the same amount).

  1. The rest is simply just sound design as one would do on a standard analog synth as filters and amplitude envelopes as well as LFOs and the sequencer (!) are readily available. Some ideas:

a.) Feedback on a modulator carrier stack really helps with getting more defined saw like sounds. So if I want a strongly defined saw, I mostly use tower 2 in Algo 2 with a ratio of 1:1 and adjust the feedback on modulator B.

b.) Slightly detuning the oscillators (there are various possbilities on the digitone for doing that) allows for getting a bit more lively, scintillating spectrum with a pleasent phasing effect, just experiment. Personally, I like to use the fine tuning on the second SYN2 page for that purpose.

c.) For creating classic “analogue” sounds, I do not use the envelopes for the modulation index (first SYN2 page), because they do not appear on classic analogue synths. However, they are great for modeling the energy trajectory of the frequency modulation.

d.) Personally, I find that effects like reverb are more like a last resort to add a bit of polish. The main goal is to create a good sound in the first place, but well, I love a good sounding reverb. :wink:

e.) If you are using a velocity and aftertouch sensitive controller, pay attention on how the sound feels when playing it. The setup page has some great options for fine tuning how the synth engines react to frequency, velocity and aftertouch, that is, ultimately, your physical interactions with the synth engines. Unfortunately, polyphonic aftertouch is not available.

That’s basically it: Create a classic sounding oscillator section and work from there with the filter, envelopes and modulation options. Add internal or external effects to taste.

To wrap this up: the digitone is capable of producing a huge variety of sounds. Just experiment until you find something that sounds good to your ears!

By the way, if someone has a recipe for the classic FM soprano patch or formant synthesis on the digitione, let me know!

Hope that helps! Best wishes!

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Nice! Post more stuff. And welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

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Really nice stuff. Also, that inverse/whiteout effect is so very cool. Feel free to PM me about how you did that :wink:

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Thanks a lot everyone :slight_smile: Its really helpful with all your inputs, thanks again :slight_smile:

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I made a tutorial on how to make pads and leads on the Digitone. When tweaking stuff, you naturally end up with a metallic FM-y sound without even trying. There are a ton of sweet spots everywhere, but they’re really tiny. This tutorial picks out a favorite sweet spot of mine and shows how to make a few different sounds from there:

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So many thanks for the s/o, selfup! :pray: Really great to hear that people get use out of the tutorial :slight_smile:

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It was a very good tutorial. Thanks for the great content!

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